The day-to-day business of running a family is both time consuming and ongoing. The current prevailing economic and social conditions in North America dictate that in many families both spouses must work which limits the time either can spend on domestic chores. The situation is even more acute in single parent families where in addition to a full days work the parent must also see to the household needs.
One particularly time consuming domestic activity which requires attending to on a regular basis is grocery shopping. At present, the practise in most households is to compile a written shopping list prior to departing on the shopping excursion. A drawback to this procedure is that when the shopping list is compiled in one sitting, items may be inadvertently left off the list due to forgetfulness thereby leading to multiple shopping trips resulting in wasted time and added expense. In other procedures, items are added to a master shopping list on an ongoing basis as the need for them is realized. A drawback to this procedure is that such lists are prone to being misplaced or lost.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a permanent, reusable and dedicated listing device which provides a fast and convenient means of signalling the shopper which grocery, household or other items are required.
A device for presenting a list of items and for marking items in the list is provided. The device comprises a plate having indicia on one side thereof and indicator means located in adjacent relation to the indicia on the plate. A plurality of slidable tab means for selectively covering the adjacent indicator means is provided. Each tab means has a cover tab and a pair of resilient legs. Provided is a support member having a plurality of spaced, parallel guide channels with the pair of resilient legs of the slidable tab means being located in the parallel guide channels. Each of the slidable tab means being slidably movable between a covering position in which the cover tab is substantially covering the indicator means and an uncovering position in which the portion of the indicator means is not covered by the cover tab. The device includes locking means for locking the tab means in the covering or uncovering positions, wherein the locking means for each of the plurality of guide channels and the associated tab means comprises a pair of boss members providing into the guide channel from opposed guide channel walls and an indentation located on a surface of each of the pair of resilient legs of the elongate portion adjacent to the side walls of the guide channel. The indentations are for receiving therein a boss member in order to lock the tab means in the covering or uncovering position.